00:00All right, breaking news, former Michigan football head coach Sharon Moore just learned his fate in court after taking a
00:06plea deal last month.
00:07Let's break down the repercussions with Harvard Law professor Michael McCann.
00:12Mike, thanks for hopping on with us today.
00:14The verdict is just in, or I guess the sentence in, he was facing up to six months in jail
00:19on the telecommunications charge and 30 days for trespassing.
00:23And then there was the five years he was facing for the top count of home invasion.
00:28He was sentenced to 18 months probation and court fees.
00:32So it's safe to say that it was smart to take the plea deal.
00:35Why did the judge and the state only give him 18 months of probation when he was facing up to
00:43five years?
00:45Yeah, so the judge focused on the fact that one, his wife gave a sympathetic portrayal of him and that
00:54he would not serve him to be sent to jail.
00:57The other is that he's a first time offender.
01:00He doesn't have a criminal background and he did a plea deal.
01:02So when somebody does a plea deal, they accept responsibility and in exchange, they are usually given a much lighter
01:11sentence.
01:11So all of those factors were favorable for him.
01:15In a high profile case like this, though, I mean, this is the head football or former head football coach
01:21for the Michigan Wolverines.
01:23What would be the incentive for the state to allow him to take the plea instead of prosecuting him to
01:30the fullest extent of the law?
01:32There are a lot of people that are out there that are going to think that the prosecutors and the
01:36judge were too lenient.
01:39Yeah, I mean, I would say a couple of things.
01:40One is that he's a first time offender.
01:42And I think that's that that is an important point that people make mistakes in life.
01:47He doesn't have a pattern of making mistakes.
01:50That's a factor that likely made prosecutors more willing to entertain a plea deal with him.
01:55The other is that his lawyer had signaled that there would be an attack on evidence and and other aspects
02:01of a trial.
02:02And there's no guarantee they would win the trial.
02:04I mean, this is this is, you know, for prosecutors, he's a high profile figure.
02:08Would somebody in the jury find something he says either sympathetic or find a problem in how the prosecution goes
02:16about the case or how law enforcement accumulated evidence?
02:19There's all sorts of possibilities that could give prosecutors pause that that cutting a deal rather than going to trial
02:27is the best outcome.
02:28So but in your professional opinion, let's say he was your client.
02:32Would you have told him or advised him to take the plea deal or would you have told him to
02:37take it to court and maybe fight those charges and have a chance to beat him?
02:42You know, if they're talking cut a deal where he's not going to go to jail, that's pretty appealing, given
02:47that he's accused of some pretty serious conduct.
02:52Obviously, I haven't seen the evidence. I haven't talked to the witnesses.
02:54So it's hard on the outside to assess the kind of factors his attorneys were looking at.
03:01But certainly, given that the home invasion charge carried a five year sentence, a prospective five year sentence as a
03:07felony to negotiate it down to misdemeanors that carry a maximum of six months in jail.
03:13And the fact that he doesn't have a previous criminal record, that would make me fairly confident that a plea
03:18deal was the way to go.
03:19But of course, he's the one who has to live with it. I mean, not his lawyer. Right.
03:22He has to accept responsibility. He has to now have a criminal record.
03:27So there is a tradeoff for him. But it was one when he weighed the pros and cons that this
03:31was the best approach.
03:32So now that he has the official sentence of 18 months probation in criminal court, does this open him up
03:41to being taken to civil court?
03:44Should we expect a lawsuit to follow?
03:47Always possible. Right. Always possible. One could have been filed before this.
03:51The fact that he's admitting responsibility, that he's accepting a plea deal, it could elevate the chances for civil litigation
04:00and civil, a civil remedy imposed against him.
04:03But at the end of the day, that's about money. And if, if I'm his lawyer, the primary goal is
04:10to keep him out of incarceration. And they accomplished that today.
04:14All right. Mike, thank you for your expertise on this matter.
04:17You got it. Thanks for having me, Brennan.
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